Tag Archive for: digital marketing strategy

3 Marketing Practices to Ditch

Here are three marketing practices that are no longer effective. Let them go! While you may be leaving something you are comfortable with, this makes room for new ideas.

Campaign Mindset

The concept of a campaign has the concept of a start and finish baked in. Real companies and real initiatives don’t work like that. The people you engage with expect a long term relationship. Marketing that is connected to long-term goals and that evolves to align with changing needs is far more effective.

Siloed Marketing

If your efforts on Facebook, including messaging and imagery, is handled as a secluded marketing effort, stop. Everything you do, online and offline, needs to be part of a whole. You can’t be a different company at one location than another. Every part of your marketing – website, email, social platforms – need to be part of one coordinated marketing strategy.

Relying on Thought Leadership of Others

There was a time that people genuinely appreciated people who “curated” content on a particular topic or area of interest. You could cultivate a strong following by aggregating information written by many people and published by a variety of sources. This is another marketing practice to let go. Your people want to know what YOU think and what YOU have to say. They have the skills to find the rest of it without you. Layer on top of this that just about every platform reduces visibility of posts with links external to that platform. They want to keep their users on their platform, and will penalize you for efforts to take them elsewhere.

Assess for Marketing Ideas to Ditch, and Others to Add

As we head into the final quarter of 2021, it is a good time to assess your marketing strategy. Look at the data. Consider the impact of each thing that you do.

Now is a great time to amp up efforts on what works and drop the things that aren’t pulling their weight. That will set you up for greater achievement in 2022.

Know Your Business and Marketing Niche

It’s not uncommon for business owners to be asked about their niche. This may seem like people are asking you to put yourself in a box when you can do so many things. However, this is actually a very helpful question that increases your marketing impact.

What’s a Niche?

A niche is part of a market with specific needs. When you define your niche, you have defined your market. Rather than selling all things to all people, you become focused on what you specifically offer to help a very targeted customer.

The more specific your niche, the easier it is for people and search engines to understand what you do. You are able to use specific words and illustrations that are more memorable – and index-able – than the general, global words everyone else uses. You are focused, and that helps others understand exactly what you do.

Find Your Niche

To find your marketing niche, start by identifying the main category that you fit into. Then, work to narrow it down. Ideally, you want to find a niche that is not too general, but not so specific that you’re missing out on opportunities.

Next, consider your customers. What do they have in common? Think beyond general characteristics like age and income and go deeper. What are their common needs? Frustrations?

Consider these kinds of questions:

  • Are you (mainly) selling to consumers or to businesses?
  • Where is your audience located?
  • How old are the youngest and oldest people you think might be interested in your offering?
  • Is there a large majority of a single gender in your audience, or is it a mixture?
  • What kind of values do they have?
  • What kind of lifestyles?

By identifying the kind of audience you want to target, you can make a much bigger impact. This is partly because the more niche you go, the less competition you will face, so it’s already easier to stand out. But knowing your niche also means you can identify your audience’s needs more easily and understand how you help them.

Now focus on your products and services. What makes people buy? What makes your offerings unique? You can start simple: does your product look different from competing products, is it a different color or shape? Does it have additional features that other models don’t include? Is it a luxury product or a budget option?

Sum It Up – Your Niche

Now you’ve spent time defining your category, your audience, and your product, put it all together. Focus on the details that really stand out to you. Add these details to your category and you should start discovering your niche. Your goal is to find a niche that’s not too general, but not so specific that you miss out on opportunities.

You aren’t done. Your business will evolve, and your niche along with it. Be sure to check in again on all the steps of defining your niche to stay on top of changes and to maintain the right focus.

Podcasting Thrives in COVID Times

When COVID arrived, I wondered how it would impact clients who use podcasting as part of their digital strategy.  People stopped commuting. Would they find time to listen to podcasts?

Apparently yes. Data show that podcasting is thriving during COVID times.

The podcasting industry is strong. There are more podcasts and more listeners. More tools and platforms have come online to help creators and consumers.

Podcasting Stats Show They Are COVID-Proof

Here are 5 stats about the podcast industry shared by Resonate, one of many podcast production services.

1. The podcasting industry is projected to be more than $1 Billion by 2021 (https://www.iab.com/insights/third-annual-podcast-ad-revenue-study-by-iab-and-pwc-reports-significant-growth/)

2. 90 million Americans listen to podcasts monthly (https://www.convinceandconvert.com/podcast-research/2019-podcast-statistics/)

3. 43% of monthly podcast listeners say they have listened to a podcast on Spotify, and 35% on Pandora (https://www.edisonresearch.com/the-podcast-consumer-2019/)

4. 51% of Americans 12+ have listened to a podcast (https://www.edisonresearch.com/the-podcast-consumer-2019/)

5. According to a study conducted in the UK, most podcasts are listened to on weekday evenings. (https://www.acast.com/uk-audio-intelligence-report)

Consider Podcasts for Your Marketing Strategy

Podcasts connect people and ideas, entertain, inspire, and teach. Do you have content that fits with these goals? It may be time to look into podcasting as part of your digital strategy.

Learn More: Podcast Secrets From Behind The Mic